If you’re following the upcoming federal election (find out how and where to vote on October 19 here), you’ll know that a point of contention is whether or not Muslim women should be permitted to wear a niqab while taking their citizenship oath.

A niqab, for those unfamiliar, is generally speaking, a veil worn by some Muslim women – it covers all of the face, except for the eyes. It’s different from a hijab, burqa, al-amira, kimar and chador. A niqab looks like this:

NDP’s Tom Mulcair thinks the issue is the Conservative party’s “weapon of mass distraction,” while Green’s Elizabeth May says, “It’s a false debate…What is the impact of the niqab on the economy, what is the impact of the niqab on climate change, what is the impact of the niqab on the unemployed?”

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper states that he’ll never tell his young daughter that a woman should cover her face because she is a woman. He adds, “That’s not our Canada. That not acceptable to me.” And Liberal leader Justin Trudeau? He says, “This [the niqab issue] is the crassest kind of politics, and I was proud to denounce it.”

So, yeah, it’s a topic that’s heavily weighted on the side of why is this an issue at all? But it is an issue. And if you are on the side of the conversation where you can’t quite understand why such an issue is being discussed, you’re going to love Niqabs of Canada, a Tumblr account that demonstrates beautifully how we as Canadians have been wearing Northern niqabs since, well, the inception of Canada. Seriously, we have, like it ain’t no thing. For example: